CONNECTING REMOTE COMMUNITIES

One
the most effective way to revive and sustain remote communities is to
help them to gain access to the global information
network. Since the early
community telecentres were set up, such as the
multi-purpose community telecentre in
Timbuktu, Mali in 1997, many different stakeholders have
got involved in
a variety of pilot projects and initiatives around the
world. By connecting to the digital world abroad, as
well as closer to home,
communities can seek economic prosperity, social
stability and the personal and professional
development of its members. ICTs, in
conjunction with wider measures, can bring the
digital age to isolated and marginalized communities and
help ensure their
integration into wider society at the local, national
and international levels.

ICT stories from the field

Wi-Fi Pilot Development Projects-Latin America

Success Strategy: The challenges faced by rural communities in Latin America include the lack of communication infrastructure and limited finances available to provide this infrastructure. With these as setbacks, there are little or no communication technologies to link the inhabitants to the city
The project brings Wi-Fi connectivity to these seemly unreachable areas in an inexpensive manner, thereby connecting remote areas to the internet.
The project is unique because of its use of Wi-Fi technology. It connects rural communities across Latin America and the Caribbean to the internet using a single antenna. The project has successfully been rolled out in the mountainous regions of the Amazon rainforest, Ecuador, Panama, Peru El Salvador Mexico and Argentina.

The Latin America School of Network Foundation in collaboration with the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas has launched a portal called WiLAC designed to support wireless connectivity implementation.

Partners: International Development and Research Center (IDRC), Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA)

Comunicación
sin Fronteras en Costa Rica

Success Strategy: Communication
without Borders (Comunicación sin Fronteras) is
a national program in Costa Rica designed to reach every citizen, regardless of
their specific social group. The program is a universal access initiative
by the Government, which began in 2003, with the purpose of incorporating
information and communication technologies (ICTs) as part of citizens’ daily
life.
Communication
without Borders proposes that all 4 million inhabitants of Costa Rica have a
free electronic mail account and a personal web site space. Community Access
Points would be dispersed throughout the country, and incorporated in
institutions rooted in the community (i.e. libraries, post offices, and
schools).In addition, the users
will have access to governmental information and key government services.

Daknet: The Wi-Fi
Postal System

Success
Strategy: This
joint project, DakNet, was a result of the partnership between the
MIT Media Lab, the Government of India, and leading academic institutions, in
an effort to bring the benefits of new technologies to more people.

DakNet uses a unique combination of
physical and wireless transport to offer data connectivity to regions lacking
communication infrastructure. The hybrid network architecture (patent pending)
enables high-bandwidth intranet and internet connectivity among kiosks and
between kiosks and hubs. Villages can send e-mails, and multimedia messages,
which are then stored on the local kiosk server, which is connected to a
wireless access point. Once a day, the mobile unit (a van with an access point
and external antenna) drives by to “collect” the requests/messages that have
accrued in the local server. As the van passes through the villages on its
route, messages are dropped off and collected, finally ending the day at the hub
(the central internet-connection point) where the requests are processed, files
shared, messages sent and received, to be once more driven and delivered to the
rural kiosk the following day.

Colombia’s laptop warrior- Connectivity for
Peace and Progress

Success Strategy:Vilma
Almendra, a 23-year-old Paez Indian from Colombia, represents what Canadian
Aboriginal Chief Dwight Dorey recently referred to as the modern "laptop
warrior." Almendra coordinates the community information service, or
telecentre, in the town of Santander de Quilichao in southwest Colombia. The
telecentre — part internet café, part library, and part meeting place —
is housed at the headquarters of ACIN, the Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas
del Norte del Cauca [association of Indigenous governing councils of North Cauca],
and is one of three internet-equipped information services in southwest Colombia
supported by Canada’s
International Development
Research Centre (IDRC). Vilma Almendra says that information and
communication technologies (ICTs) are playing a key role in denouncing
human rights abuses in Colombia — a country plagued by civil war for the
past 39 years. Almendra is part of a growing movement using internet
communications as an antidote to violence against Indigenous peoples. She and Dorey addressed a Canadian-Latin American aboriginal forum on
information technology and connectivity, held in Ottawa from March 24th
to 26th 2003. The three-day meeting, sponsored by the
Institute
for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) and several Canadian federal
government departments, was webcast live on the internet via the
Aboriginal
Canada Portal.

Boats and River Networks
to Deliver Access to Information Technology - Bangladesh

Success
Strategy: Shidhulai
Swanirvar Sangstha, a Bangladesh NGO, has adopted a
pioneering approach to bridging the digital divide and its
commitment to providing free public access to computers and
the Internet. Through the use of indigenous boats converted
into mobile libraries, schools, and the Mobile Internet
Educational Units on Boats program, Shidhulai Swanirvar
Sangstha provides educational services, access to
technology, and computer training to poor communities in a
Northern Bangladesh watershed. The boats, which anchor at
remote villages, rely on generators or solar energy and
mobile phones for Internet access.

Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha is
dedicated to alleviating poverty among the poorest people in
the Nandakuja-Atrai-Boral Watershed, serving 86,500 families
and an area covering over 240 kilometers crossed by
thousands of rivers, tributaries and streams. The Access to
Learning Award will enable the organization to sustain its
services and expand programs to meet an increasing demand.

“All our program activities are
concentrated in and around the rivers using a familiar
vehicle for people to approach technology. Our boat
libraries are crucial to the progress of the villages along
the river basins,” said Abul Hasanat Mohammed Rezwan,
executive director of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha and
founder of the boat project.

Relying on skilled volunteers,
Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha educates men, women, and
children on issues ranging from agricultural practices and
to micro enterprise and literacy. Farmers learn about
strategies for productive and sustainable farming and the
ecological hazards of pesticides. Throughout the year, they
are able to connect with educators via onboard e-mail and
check current farm prices online to remain competitive in
the local market.

Seeing a computer, let alone touching
it, was beyond our wildest imagination,” said Abdul Azad, a
farmer who travels an hour to the docked boat library from
the remote village of Kalinagar. Students who would
otherwise be unable to attend school during the monsoon
season continue their education through the year using the
libraries’ onboard field staff. With literacy rates in
Bangladesh at only 42 percent, Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha
is making a significant impact on educating young people,
especially girls. In fact, over 70 percent of the program’s
beneficiaries are women. In a highly competitive job market
coupled with pervasive poverty, student participants are
eager to learn technological skills they hope will translate
to a career later on.

The project is intended to extend
further even if government subsidies are not available. Over
the next five years, the program hopes to double its
capacity.

Target group: Local communities, with a special focus on women and
children

Success Strategy:
A project organized by American Assistance for Cambodia and Japan Relief for
Cambodia consists of a motorcycle with a rear-mounted box that is equipped to
send e-mail messages to schools. An antenna on the top of the box, and a Wi-Fi
wireless communication system inside, enable e-mails to be relayed to schools in
13 remote Cambodian villages via satellite dishes. These villages have no water,
electricity or phones and are far from health centres, but they now have e-mail.
The schools are equipped with solar panels to run a computer for six hours, with
an e-mail link via a motorcycle delivery system.

Every morning, five Honda motorcycles leave the hub in the provincial capitol
of Banlung, where a satellite dish, donated by Shin Satellite, links the
provincial hospital and a special skills school to the internet for telemedicine
and computer training. The bike drivers begin the day by collecting e-mails from
the hub's dish, which takes just a few seconds.

Then, as they pass each school and one health centre, they transmit the
messages. At the end of the day they return to the hub to transmit all the
collected e-mail to the internet for any point on the globe.

Each school also has a computer and e-mail-trained young teacher graduated
from the Future Light Orphanage in Phnom Penh, including four women, who are the
village computer teacher and e-mail postmaster. The children in the village are
being trained to take over this function in a couple of years.

This program opens the village up to receiving and sending messages to the
whole world and also doing internet searches for information.

Hong Kong, China: Community Cyber
Points

Success Strategy:
The Cyber Points project was designed to provide free computing facilities for
the general community, with a view to promoting IT
awareness. The facilities enable the public to access official information
through the Government home pages. Through the Universal Free Electronic Mail
Service Scheme, members of the public can use the facility for e-mail
communications; browse other websites; and access Electronic Service Delivery (ESD)
for those families without personal computers (PCs).

The project was implemented
in different phases to meet users’ requirements and government pledges. Phase
I of the project was launched publicly on 29 June 1999. Fifty PCs were installed
in enclosed workstations at 20 different community halls and centres of the Home
Affairs Department. Phase II was implemented in three stages, and was completed
in June 2000 with 64 PCs launched in 21 different locations. At completion of
stage III in October 2001, a total of 200 Cyber Point PCs had been launched in
78 different locations and non-government organizations. To provide equal
opportunity to different groups of the community, the Cyber Points have also
been extended to the visually impaired, with a trial project involving 28 PCs
with special furniture, computer hardware and software launched in June 2000 at
four different sites. In July 2001, a Super Cyber Centre with 100 PCs was opened
at central Government offices to provide free IT facilities and training
programmes to the community.

Baatchit:
Economics in an Information Community Centre

Success Strategy:
All roads in
Tikawali, a village lying 40 kilometres from the capital of India, lead to the
Baatchit Center—where one and all gather not just for local news and
information but also for entertainment, exchange of ideas, and business advice.

Before
the introduction of communication devices such as radio and television, rural
Indian communities depended extensively on the Chaupal (a central meeting
place) as the primary means of information exchange, business talks,
socialization, and entertainment. With the advent of television and radio,
information, though easily accessible, was largely urban-oriented, with content
lacking a local relevance, especially with regard to sustaining livelihoods in
rural areas. Worse, as people spent less physical time together, social bonds
also began to deteriorate. The Baatchit programme seeks to empower and
enfranchise villagers through a set of social, economic, and information
technology (IT) strategies. Further, it demonstrates that this multi-perspective
approach is necessary if any information and communication technology (ICT)
project is to succeed.

Baatchit has a centre located in the
middle of the village with a computer room and a television hall. The computer
room contains a PC laptop (with a webcamera) that runs an icon-based community
software system. There is also a Mac laptop and video camera that villagers use
to create their own video content in the form of news, information,
entertainment, and advertisements. The television hall has a 34” set that
plays the videos created by the video team.

From an economic
perspective, villagers are encouraged to understand essential economic
principles as they relate to the development of
the village as a whole, as well as to the villagers independently. For this, the
centre is used as a discussion and learning ground. From the IT
perspective, the community software system is functioning as a means of
collecting information about people, and providing a window for villagers to
understand their village in a different light. They are finding out about
schemes that are available and are beginning to take advantage of them. Through
the video-message board module, users are able to asynchronously share their
ideas with others, without having to read or write. From the social perspective,
villagers are interacting not only for emergencies (as was the case previously).
The gatherings here are often for social or constructive purposes.

Ethiopia: Adaptive
Technology Centre for the Blind

Success Strategy: The
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the
United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) established a computer training
centre in Ethiopia –
Adaptive Technology Centre for the Blind - to assist the
blind and visually impaired members of the community to gain access to
information and communication technologies.

ATCB,
registered as an NGO in 2000 is
a non-profit resource and Information Technology center which is essentially a
dedicated computer training and Braille transcriber Center focusing on the needs
of students and professionals in Ethiopia who are blind or visually impaired.

According
to the ATCB,it requires several
months of hard work to transcribe any full text of ink print edition. The long
process usually involves a phrase-by-phrase dictation by a sighted reader to a
blind Braille writer, who copies down the words on a manual Braille-Writer. Once
the Braille text is completed, it is reproduced page by page on a Thermoform
Braille -duplicating machine The duplication of a single copy, depending on the
speed of the operator and the condition of the machine, may take several days.
Not only it is time consuming and tedious, the process exposes the people
involved in it to an extreme degree of heat that causes them discomfort and
eventually results in health problems.

Producing Braille by
computerized embossers saves both time and energy. Moreover, embossers are
equipped with graphic programs, enabling the
Braille readers visualize objects and thereby form clear mental images of
the real world under their fingertips, something that wasn’t possible earlier.

The two
United Nations specialized agencies will lend their support to the Addis
Ababa-based
Adaptive Technology Centre for the Blind (ATCB) by training blind
students, government employees and others to use computers equipped with
adaptive devices. ITU and ATCB will provide the training equipment and software.
In addition, ATCB will make available administrative and professional staff and
provide the project office with the necessary facilities and transport. For its
part, UNESCO will supply training and curriculum-development materials.

As
part of the project, a course for trainers and students will be conducted at
five technical schools across Ethiopia. Those who can afford to participate in
the project, or their sponsors, will be charged a moderate training fee.
Proceeds from the sale of Braille publications such as training manuals,
newspapers and other materials, as well as fees and charges from individuals and
organizations will also contribute to sustaining the initiative.

There
is sparse involvement from the Government, one reason being cited is that
there is no clear policy on both the Federal and Regional levels designed to
address such issues as rights of the blind and visually impaired to information
accessibility and other opportunities According to the United States-based
International Eye Foundation (IEF), there are about 45 million blind people in
the world, the vast majority of them living in Africa. In Ethiopia, the latest
census indicates that there are well over 500,000 blind people in the country.
Given such numbers, it is worth promoting such Centers that assist the disabled
by means of ICTs and Governments all over the world should encourage such
initiatives.

Southern
India: Information Shops

Success
Strategy: Obtaining
current price information for fish or farm products was one of the initial
benefits being advertised. These days, a fisherman goes to the Village
Knowledge Centre (VKC) and gets information on seawave heights likely in the
next 24 hours. This is downloaded for him from a US Navy website. He then asks
for information pertaining to safety at sea, fish/shoal occurrence near the
seashore and post-harvesting techniques so he can fish in the right area.
In
Southern India, four VKCs have now been set up by the MS Swaminathan
Research Foundation (MSSRF), in collaboration with the International Development
Research Centre (IDRC)of Canada.

From the VKCs, villagers also access information on grain and agricultural input
prices, integrated pest management and pest management in rice and sugarcane
crops. Important public events and government announcements that are relevant to
the villagers are also flashed through the VKCs. Local-specific information has
also been compiled - a detailed account on
sugarcane cultivation, a guidebook on the application of bio-fertilizers in rice
cultivation, a how-to-style document on herbal remedies for disorders among
children and one on local religious festivals. There is also a provision for
exchanging information on the availability of labour and materials in the
region. Bus/train timetables and opinions of medical practitioners are also
available at the click of a mouse.

Honduras:
Rural Community Telecenters—Myth or Reality?

Success Strategy:
In one of the poorest countries in Latin America, where only a
few kilometers separate semi-rural cities from rural
populations, there exist
villages that lack even the most basic services. Here, water is often the only
basic resource the people can count on. Montaña Grande is one of these many
small hamlets, with some 300 inhabitants living in around 50 homes. The
significant activity of Montaña Grande is agricultural, accounting for the
production 65 per cent of the vegetables that are consumed in the country. But
this little hamlet has no telecommunications whatsoever—an astonishing thought
for many who take telecommunications access for granted.

Close by is Valle de Angeles, a picturesque village in which
the first Multipurpose Community Telecentre (MCT) was set up. It was only two years ago that the mayor and his advisors first heard the
word “internet” and without even understanding what it meant, and even less
what the initials of ITU meant, went ahead and agreed to the establishment of
the first and only rural MCT in Central America.

The
MCT now provides facilities to the public through a modern computer network with
a permanent 64 kbit/s internet connection, e-mail service and electronic library
and includes a study area, a Web page server with the history of the town, a
commercial portal, public telephones for national and international calls, fax
service, printing, photocopies and the very first tests of virtual telephone
reception.

Training
programmes for rural teachers are also offered. Suddenly, the library that had
never been had, the telegraph system that had never arrived, the letter that was
sent in a fraction of a secondand
access to national and international newspapers was within reach of people who
had never used such facilities, even in a non-virtual context. As one can
imagine, the emotional impact was high for these teachers, the first group of
rural teachers trained for the twenty-first century that the rural towns of
Valle de Angeles and Santa Lucia had ever seen. After
just eight months of activity, the MCT was already virtually covering its own
costs and was well on the way to become auto sustainable.

It
is here also that a new concept of the rural mini or micro-telecentre is taking
off as a new experience that will for the first time in history permit rural
farmers to send messages to the outside world. The ITU and the Honduran
Telecommunications Company (HONDUTEL) offices in Tegucigalpa have received dozens of requests for more rural telecentres from remote hamlets all around
Honduras, for instance from medical brigades working in remote tropical forests.
And disbelieving neighbouring countries have been in contact to verify the
existence of this technological miracle that is closing the digital divide
between “the haves and have nots” in telecommunications.

Santa
Lucía, another rural town, opened up the second MCT in Honduras following
efforts by the inhabitants, ITU, HONDUTEL, Canadian volunteers and a local group
of Ham Radio operators. This new MCT has opened up new frontiers in tele-health
and tele-education, and for agriculture, as well as a better management of
crises and natural disasters.

Public Domain Information Centers

Success
Strategy: The Public Domain Information Centers Programme (united and extended
Public Legal Information Centers Programme and Public Business
Information Centers Programme) is aimed to create the network of
community centers for free public access to the different kind of
public domain information, e.g. legal, consumer, business,
ecological, educational, etc. across the Russia and CIS countries.
The website of the programme has till now connected more than 1350
telecenters throughout the CIS region and provides useful
information about ongoing and forthcoming initiatives related to the
dissemination of legal information concerning all aspects of life.

Malaysia’s e-Bario Initiative

Success
Strategy:
The
Malaysian Government’s e-Bario is a development project that utilizes
computers, telephones, and VSATs (very small aperture terminals for use with
satellites) to connect villagers to the internet in the remote village of Bario.
Administered by a combination of public and private domestic and
international actors, e-Bario demonstrates the many ways in which ICTs can be
used to help marginalized communities in Malaysia develop socially, culturally
and economically.

The Leland Initiative

Success Strategy:
Formally
launched on 4 June 1996, the Leland Initiative (LI) has proved to be one of the
most effective projects to bring internet access to the African continent.
Designed as a five-year USD 15 million United States Government effort,
LI seeks to promote the use of the internet as a means of fostering sustainable
social and economic development in approximately 20 African countries. Administered by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
LI is designed to help Africans realize the power of the internet as a
communication and development tool.Working
with international and domestic partners, USAID helps target states get the
infrastructure and training necessary for becoming active participants in the
global information society.

Telecottages
in Hungary

Success Strategy:
In
a country that has over 3,000 small villages and where 7.8 per cent of the
population lives in settlements with less than 1,000 people, Hungarian
telecottages are a key source of access to the global information society. Inspired
by the telecentre schemes in Denmark and Sweden, in 1990, a group of Hungarian
librarians set out to provide marginalized groups with computer services and
internet access.The first
telecottage, or “TeleHaz,” in Hungary was established in a small mountain
community called Czakbereny in 1994.

Community
Perspectives

Success Strategy:
Located in a small village in the Buey Arriba territory of Cuba, Television
Serrana (TVS) has helped to give marginalized communities a voice throughout the
country.Designed to preserve the
cultural identity of these communities, TVS has become an important tool for
strengthening the human capacities in the remote village of Sierra Maestra. Equipped with basic camera and editing equipment, the staff of 15 uses
video to publicize the living conditions of residents of Buey Arriba. TVS founder, Daniel Diez, said, “We wanted to truthfully record the
full reality of the daily lives of these men and women that live in the
mountains and preserve this for our national culture, as well as improve their
self-esteem.”With the help of
the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO), the
Cuban Government, the Asociacion Nacional de Agricultores Pequenos (ANAP), and
the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), TVS has introduced many of the
region’s 32,000 inhabitants to the information age.

TVS
covers a variety of issues, including education, culture, health, gender and
human rights.It also offers many
services that help to bolster the skills of the community, including workshops
and seminars on how to use video for participatory development.
Perhaps the most compelling service TVS offers is the production of
“video letters,” which are designed to foster cross-regional communication
between children within and outside of Cuba.
These video letters capture on film peoples’ realities, dreams and
aspirations for the world to see.Mainly
targeted at Cuban youth, TVS’s video letters give children the opportunity to
record their concerns and self-expressions, thereby protecting their cultural
identity and boosting their self-esteem.Although
TVS helped to spawn a new generation of Cuban video makers, the lack of
experience with new technologies and the hesitancy of the Government to
undertake a “cultural video project” continue to pose challenges for TVS. Information was gathered from the Rockefeller Foundation’s
comprehensive global study on Participatory Communication for Social Change.

Multipurpose
Community Telecenters (MCTs) in Uganda

Success Strategy:While
it is still too early to gauge the effectiveness of MCTs for rural Ugandans, it
is clear that, where appropriately designed, they can play a key role in
narrowing the digital divide. To be effective however, they must be sponsored,
implemented and managed by a bi- or multilateral consortium that engages
indigenous peoples at the community and/or village level.
For example, Uganda’s first MCT, which was launched in March 1999 in a
remote village about 50 kilometers from the capital, Kampala, was designed and
funded by ITU, IDRC and UNESCO, among other international and domestic partners.
The Nakaseke MCT offered users one TV, a VCR, five computers, a printer, two
telephone lines, a scanner, a fax machine and a photocopier—the latter item
being the most popular among users. During 1999, MCTs were also launched in
Nabweru and Bunyoro, two other periphery villages in Uganda. As in other
telecentres in other LDCs, Ugandans used fax, e-mail and the internet to reduce
transaction and transportation costs, retrieve information about new farming,
education and health techniques, and stay in touch with family and friends
abroad.

Empowering Mayan Women

Success Strategy:
In 1997, Padma Guidi, an international advocate and trainer for empowering
women, launched the Centro de Mujeres Communicadoras Mayas (CMCM) to help bring
ICTs to the remote village in Solola, Guatemala. The project, known as Nutzij (“my word” in Mayan), empowers
indigenous women by providing them with hands-on training in video production
and using the internet.Specifically, Nutzij, which is run by a collective of
young Mayan women, seeks to help women develop the skills to preserve their
community’s cultural heritage on video and market the content to the world via
the internet.Nutzij offers
culturally relevant information relating to education, agriculture, health and
the environment.

From her past experience of helping women in India and Czechoslovakia, Ms
Guidi understood the effectiveness of using video and the
internet to preserve
the uniqueness of marginalized communities in an era of globalization. Given the lack of attention paid to the educational needs of the Mayan
population, particularly those of women, Ms Guidi saw video as a way to allow
women to contribute to the social and economic evolution of their communities.She said, “seeing is believing, and videos made by the
indigenous community can bring information in people’s own languages and in
images they can recognize and relate to.” This was her vision for Nutzij. By capturing stories from the community on video, Nutzij has made
women a central component for preserving cultural knowledge for future
generations.

Although
the widespread benefits that it brought to the Solola community, Nutzij
has consistently ran into funding difficulties throughout its implementation.
To address this obstacle, the administrators created co-production
workshops for foreign communication students who would pay for their
participation to help supplement the project’s operations.
Beyond funding, Nutzij also faced linguistic (most websites are
published in English), electricity and infrastructure hurdles.Moreover, women are also restrained by the social norms that
inhibit their involvement in training and other group activities.
Despite the social, infrastructure and economic hurdles, the project has
proved to be an effective mechanism for helping to cultivate the human
capacities of Mayan women in this remote, isolated community.
Perhaps most importantly, Nutzij has helped to demystify ICTs,
while also offering a replicable and sustainable method for cultural
preservation and social development.Information
was gathered from the Rockefeller Foundation’s comprehensive global study on
Participatory Communication for Social Change.

Cambodia’s
KIDS Initiative

Success Strategy: The
Khmer internet Development Service (KIDS) was the first public internet café in
Cambodia.By partnering with the
government-run ISP, Camnet, KIDS was able to reduce the price of internet access
from USD 10 per hour to less than USD 2 per hour. KIDS gives Cambodian children and aspiring entrepreneurs the skills both
to learn from the internet and to utilize it to improve their socio-economic
position.

Public Acess
Points (PAPs) in Egypt

Success
Strategy: In an effort to connect all 26 of its
governorates, the Egyptian Government launched a plan to create more than 300
publicly accessible telecentres for Egyptians without private access to the
internet.Connected to the internet
via a LAN, each telecentre is equipped with 10 PCs and offers training in a
variety of IT-related fields. In collaboration with UNDP, national post offices,
and local libraries, the Egyptian Government hopes to bring the internet to
remote and high-cost areas otherwise disconnected from the digital age. By using existing infrastructures (i.e. libraries and schools), the
Government hopes to help narrow the domestic digital divide between urban and
rural communities.

One project is the UNDP-backed
Technology Access Community Centers (TACCs), of which there are three in rural
areas of Egypt.The TACCs seek to
promote civil society, provide training for isolated communities, women and
youth empowerment, and indigenous content creation. Similar to most other cybercafé projects, TACCs are equipped with PCs,
fax machines, prnbsp; Howeveike typical cybercafésers
with access to expert advice catemmerce).

21st
Century Kids Computer Clubs is another PAP initiative designed to help connect
those who are not connected.Drawing
on resources from the government (training), NGO (management) and the private
sector (equipment), this program helps kids prepare for the ever-evolving
globally networked society.The
internet Care Society (ICS), an NGO that was created in 1977 and headed by Mrs.
Suzanne Mubarak, the first lady in Egypt, manages the program.

India's Honey Bee Network

Success Strategy:In
the same way that honeybees thrive off of pollen from
flowers, the Honey Bee Network is designed around the
principle of information and knowledge sharing for the
common good. Just
as taking nectar away from flowers does not make them
poorer, the objective of the Honey Bee Network is meant to
enrich the lives of the people who share their innovations
and ideas by helping them realize the value of their
knowledge. By
facilitating the cross-cultural and multi-linguistic
exchange of ideas throughout India, the Honey Bee Network
offers artisans, farmers, and marginalized groups an
opportunity to tap into the creative component of indigenous
knowledge systems.

Community
Empowerment Over the Airwaves

Success Strategy:
What
began as a rudimentary radio broadcast to help educate local healthcare workers
in the Khayelitsha community evolved into one of South Africa’s most
successful radio stations. In a
township about 26 kilometers outside Cape Town where the majority of people were
illiterate, but owned or had access to a radio, Griffith Mxenge realized that he
could reach a wide audience with his newly established Radio Zibonele. Using a ghetto blaster, a transmitter and an amplifier, Mxenge set up
Radio Zibonele in an old container truck in 1993.
To his surprise, demand for his broadcasts, which included topics such as
health, sports and women’s issues, was resounding.
After being granted a license to operate in 1995, Radio Zibonele quickly
expanded from five hours a day, three days a week to 19 hours per day, five days
a week. As of 2001, the station,
which employs nine staff and has a cadre of 40 to 70 volunteers, has developed
into a capacity building medium by offering training in management, budgeting,
marketing, research and basic broadcasting skills. By demystifying the medium and maintaining its participatory focus, Radio
Zibonele demonstrates the effectiveness of community empowerment via the
airwaves.Information was gathered
from the Rockefeller Foundation’s comprehensive global study on Participatory
Communication for Social Change.

Talking Through Keyboards

Success Strategy: In an
effort to encourage global cross-cultural communications,
California-based Schools Online in the United States
launched a collaborative project between students in the
United States and Egypt. Equipped with computers and
training from School Online, students in Watsonville,
California were able to use the internet and other ICTs to
communicate with their counterparts in Giza, Egypt. The
experimental project, which began in January 2002, is an
effective method to broaden the horizons of a new generation
of global citizens. Srila LaRochellle, Director of Business
Development for Schools Online, said, “Through online
collaborative projects, children become more aware of
diversity and are more understanding of other cultures.”

India’s Village Knowledge Centres

Success Strategy:
Designed by M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and funded by the
Canada-based International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Village
Knowledge Centres have been an important source of information for many rural
villages throughout India.From
healthcare to farming and transportation information, these “information
shops” are both sustainable and empowering. For instance, a cadre of women volunteers between the ages of 21-27 run
the shop in the village of Embalam, and women are given preference at each of
the other sites in operation.

While the Village Knowledge Centres have improved access to markets,
healthcare information and helped sensitize rural youth to computers, access to
agriculture-related information has proved to be one of the most popular uses of
the Centres.In the village of
Veerampattinam, each day the operating staff downloads maps from the U.S. Navy
website, showing local weather forecasts for the day. The staff then disseminates the information via loudspeakers to the
village fisherman to help them prepare for the day’s tasks.
By offering practical, localized information that can be immediately
useful to the community, these information shops help to promote a healthy
environment for all villagers.

While
the government of Pondicherry has established Centres in four villages so far,
it intends to establish “onramps” to the information superhighway in 50 more
villages in the near future.Each
shop is equipped with a multimedia Pentium PC and a printer, which are linked to
the MSSRF hub in Villianur through a local area network based on Very High
Frequency (VHF) radio.Despite the
positive benefits the Centres have had since being implemented in 1998, many
barriers remain.Poverty,
illiteracy and linguistic hurdles must be overcome in order to expand the
project into new villages throughout Pondicherry.
Moreover, it will be essential to for the project coordinators to educate
local bureaucrats, who seek to maintain control over the flow of information,
about the social and economic benefits of ICTs and the free flow of information
at the local level.

Creating an
Innovative Community

Success
Strategy: Similar to the way in which Thomas
Cooke transformed the village in the 1840s, Market Harborough in the United
Kingdom is undergoing another revolution. While Cooke used the railroad network
to launch his travel business, today’s innovators in this remote village are
using the internet to become active participants in the global information
society. One initiative created by the Market Harborough-based Mass Mitec
company involves the use of a variety of ICTs to connect the local community
with the rest of the world. By using a combination of the internet and radio,
Mass Mitec brings together experts from around the world to discuss the multiple
issues relating to innovation and the information society. The “Radio with
Pictures Show,” which airs on 95.1FM, provides a forum for knowledge sharing on
subjects ranging from sustainability to youth and the media and gender. While
local in nature, the initiative is global in scope in that it is designed to
cultivate the innovative capacities of the local community by using ICTs to
facilitate an international cross-cultural dialogue. For instance, a recent
broadcast brought together visitors from the United States, Belize and the
United Kingdom to discuss the meaning of innovation, and its influence on the
evolution of societies around the world.